Artist Biographies

Shelley Stevens has been playing and arranging music for the lap dulcimer since 1984. Her book of "O'Carolan Harp Tunes for the Mountain Dulcimer" has led to another popular publication, "Steven Foster for the Mountain Dulcimer", both published by Mel Bay Publications.  Shelley is also busy publishing her own line of dulcimer music books, including the Baker's Dozen series, and the Three String Orchestra (Vol. 1 & 2), classical music tablature for the mountain dulcimer. Shelley has completed her first solo recording, 'Songs of Life, Love, and Laughter.'

Tull Glazener has been sharing the music of the mountain dulcimer since 1984. He has performed and led workshops throughout the mid-west and south. Tull enjoys arranging aires, waltzes, ragtime, traditional, old-time, contemporary, classical, and jazz for the mountain dulcimer.
 

Susan Trump is a singer whose gentle voice and story songs you won’t forget. For years, she has been winning fans with her singing, her song writing prowess and her outstanding instrumental skill on mountain dulcimer, guitar, and banjo.  Her audiences use phrases like “the voice of an angel, singing songs that go straight to the heart.”   She has released four best-selling solo recordings, "What the Hill People Say," "Tree of Life" and "Live at Caffe Lena" which captures the excitement of one of her  “sell- out” weekend performances. Her newest CD, “Songs of Faith and Hope,”  a collection of inspirational, uplifting  songs for everyone is being touted as her best ever!

Stephen Seifert has been a frequent teacher and performer at various festivals including Augusta, Swannanoa, Stringalong, Boone/Cullowhee, Kentucky Music Week, and more. He received world-wide radio play as Dulcimer Soloist on the Nashville Chamber Orchestra's Warner Classical release, "Conversations in Silence". He was a featured performer at The American Music Festival in Tono, Japan, 2001. He served as Adjunct Instructor of Mountain Dulcimer with David Schnaufer and Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music from January of 1997 to May of 2001.
 

Janita Baker has been playing mountain dulcimer for over 30 years; through her recordings, books and appearances at festivals and workshops across the United States she has become well-known for her teaching skills and Blue Lion Dulcimers, which she builds with her husband Robert. As a solo performer on the mountain dulcimer, Janita presents her audiences with a wide range of musical experiences including classical, traditional, delta and country blues, ragtime, swing and original instrumental pieces. A gifted story teller, Janita delights her listeners with a warm and personal sharing of her music and introduces to her audience and her students the incredible complexity, variety and beauty of the mountain dulcimer.
 

Christie Burns and Butch Ross have been performing as a duo since 2003. With Christie on hammered dulcimer and Butch on mountain dulcimer and guitar, these two bring traditional tunes to life in unexpected ways. Christie previously founded and directed the Cork Dulcimer Festival in Cork City, Ireland. Now based in Kentucky, Butch and Christie enjoy teaching and performing at various dulcimer and acoustic music festivals all over the US as well as abroad. When they're not traveling, they run a weekly old time music session in Bowling Green, KY. Their debut cd, "Here to Play" was produced by Dan Landrum in Chattanooga, TN, and was released in January 2006.

Karen Mueller is one of the top autoharp and mountain dulcimer players today. Her exciting and innovative performing style, featuring Appalachian, Celtic and contemporary music, has been applauded by critics and audiences from LA to Boston. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine has said "Karen Mueller's touch, timing and taste make her a true virtuoso. Her talent and clarity ... deserve a wide audience." Karen won the 1986 International Autoharp Championship and was a National Dulcimer finalist in 1985, both at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS. A native of Winfield, she first attended the festival while in high school and was inspired to learn to play the autoharp and dulcimer by the performers she saw there.

Dave Haas lives in Charleston , WV and has been playing the mountain dulcimer for 10 years.  Dave earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Cincinnati , worked for twenty years in the Chemical Industry, and is now enjoying a second career as Professor of Chemistry at West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery , WV .  He teaches dulcimer in both private and group settings, and was the founder of the Almost Heaven Dulcimer Club in Charleston , WV .  Dave loves to share the mountain dulcimer and its history with schools, churches, and civic organizations, and has even brought dulcimer music to those in prison!  Dave also plays the guitar, sings, and leads music on Christian retreat experiences such as Kairos Prison Minisitry, The Walk To Emmaus, and Teens Encounter Christ.

With roots in both African and Seminole Indian tribes, Bing Futch's window on America is a unique landscape of music, words and imagery. He began playing Appalachian mountain dulcimer at Knott's Berry Farm theme park in 1985, working at a Ghost Town shop for Bud & Donna Ford.

In 1986, Futch founded Christian techno-punk band Crazed Bunnyz, a trio that grew popular in the international underground college radio scene. Beginning his solo career that same year, he has since composed dozens of scores for film, theater, themed attractions and television. Futch left his California hometown of Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue production opportunities in central Florida where he immediately set up a multimedia company called J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

Louisville native Molly McCormack played piano and guitar as a youngster but fell in love with music when she was given a mountain dulcimer 1989. She also plays the hammer dulcimer and has been teaching and performing on both for 12 years.

Gary Sager began building dulcimers in 1991, and has been building, playing and teaching since then.  Gary's dulcimers carry the "prussia Valley Dulcimers" label.  Gary has taught and performed at various festivals in the Midwest. Gary with wife, Toni, own the Prussia Valley Dulcimer Shop in Waverly, OH.

David Moran won the National Hammered Dulcimer Competition at Winfield Kansas when he was only fifteen. He is much, much older now, and probably wiser, too, but people seem to enjoy his playing anyway. He is considered a true innovator on the instrument and is highly regarded as both a performer and instructor. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, David moved to Texas several years ago to pursue a graduate degree in music from the University of North Texas. He currently resides in Richardson with his wife and son and continues to be the busiest hammered dulcimer teacher in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Cathy Barton and Dave Para have created dynamic performances acclaimed for 25 years for their variety and expertise in vocal and instrumental music. They have celebrated the musical traditions and folklife of Missouri and the Ozarks in festivals, clubs, concert halls, schools and studios across the U.S. and Europe. Their audiences are as diverse as their repertoire.

A versatile duo, Dave and Cathy play several stringed instruments including hammered and fretted dulcimers, banjo, guitar and Autoharp, as well as "found" instruments like bones, spoons, mouthbow and leaf. Their concerts present a range of music from the lively dance tunes they have collected in their home region to old ballads to new songs. They have conducted several instrumental workshops as well as those about songs from the Civil War, from American rivers, old gospel songs, children's songs and Christmas music.
 

Rick Thum taught himself to play guitar and drums at age twelve and played the trumpet in his high school band. Throughout high school and college (B. S. Industrial Administration) Rick played in rock bands, eventually playing regularly on the upper deck of the Admiral in St. Louis. While raising his family Rick directed his church choir. Rick's interest in traditional music was sparked when he bought a hammered dulcimer on a whim and found himself in a three-piece folk band. In 1991 Rick became co-owner of a large midwestern acoustic instrument shop. In 1994 he sold his interest in the shop to devote more time to being a traveling musician. He placed first at the 1994 Southwest Regional Dulcimer Contest and third in the 1995 National Championship at Winfield, Kansas. Rick was voted Best Performer and Favorite Teacher for several years running at the prestigious Evart Dulcimer Funfest.

Jim Miller has been playing and performing traditional music for the past 35 years. An accomplished instrument builder and teacher, he has taught workshops at numerous festivals as well as won many awards for his musicianship. For twenty years, Jim was the owner of the Hampton Music Shop, in Hampton, Tennessee, where he handcrafted over 750 hammered dulcimers. He has played with Celtic, Bluegrass, Swing, Blues and Old Time bands, and has done session work on many recordings. In addition to being an accomplished performer and workshop leader, Jim also is an enthusiastic jam facilitator who likes to get everyone involved. He plays guitar, banjo, octave mandolin, bass, steel drum, percussion, hammered and mountain dulcimers as well as his own off-the-wall musical inventions, which are always entertaining. Jim holds a Masters degree in Elementary Education with an endorsement in instrumental music. He teaches 3rd grade at Cloudland Elementary School in Roan Mountain, Tennessee, where he leads an after school traditional string band program.
 

Stephen Humphries, a native of Chapin, SC, is a Senior at Presbyterian College, where he is finishing a double major in Music and Spanish.  Stephen began playing the hammered dulcimer, as well as drums and percussion, in his early teens and regularly performs on both.  In September of 2007 he placed 1^st in the National Hammered Dulcimer Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. This was his third year playing at the competition; he received 3^rd place honors the first and second years.  In the fall of 2005, Stephen released his first solo CD entitled By the Pond, which is a mix of traditional songs, classical pieces, hymns and original compositions.  His second dulcimer CD, Landrum & Humphries, was released in the summer of 2006.  This second recording is a collaborative work featuring Stephen and Dan Landrum (well-known former hammered dulcimer player for Yanni) performing original compositions together, all on two hammered dulcimers.  In October, Stephen released a third album entitled Let Earth Receive Her King, a collection of well-known Christmas favorites on solo hammered dulcimer.
 

Jory Hutchens enjoys many different styles of music and brings in a great deal of creativity to the band from his broad range of diverse tunes. He has a knack for arranging instrumental work into the structured "bluegrass sound". He is probably more comfortable than the others experimenting with "out there" licks on his fiddle and fully expresses this enthusiasm on stage. You cannot help but get happy inside when you watch this guy.

 

Guy George is a rhythmic, melodic hammered dulcimer player with a definite jazz influence to his playing style. He tours throughout the United States and Canada performing and teach workshops on the hammered dulcimer, steel drums, and penny whistle.He also plays steel drum to a very high standard, often joining mountain dulcimer and other musicians, complementing their performances. Having studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Guy comes from a background in jazz and performance on the saxophone.

Turner Hutchens began playing mandolin at age 8. Two years later, he won 1st place in the Ky State Championship Old Time Fiddler's Contest playing his mandolin in the beginner open. In 2006 he learned guitar. Turner is a big fan of Bill Monroe, Ricky Skaggs, and Sam Bush. And he has had the honor to learn from friends and mentors, Wendell Cornett, Jim Crisp, and Jeff Guernsey. He has taken what he has learned from all of them to create his own style.

Mary Carty is a life long resident of Burlington County, New Jersey, and brings her Native American heritage into play with her handmade baskets. Many of her traditional baskets are shapes and styles with which her Lenape ancestors would have been familiar. She is a true artist and innovator who does not like to have her creativity stifled by following rigid set patterns. This is a concept Mary often stresses to her students. "I don't just teach people how to make baskets; I teach them how to be basket makers,” she often says. On the other hand Mary has a healthy respect for tradition. This is why she has researched and makes traditional baskets which her Lenape ancestors would have made. It is this blending of tradition and creativity that makes Mary Carty's baskets both unique and highly collectible. A talented basket weaver, Mary has won many awards for her original basket designs through the years, and has admirers throughout the world.

Angela Rojas was born in Laredo, Texas and was raised in Mexico City where at age 5 started piano lessons. When she gave birth to her first daughter she learned to smock, she loved making her little dresses and has continued doing it for 30 years! In a music festival she saw a hammered dulcimer and fell in love with it, she was able to apply her piano knowledge to it and enjoys playing along with her husband Jorge who plays the fiddle and guitar.  Angela and her husband live in Coopertown, Tennessee and are the parents of 4 grown children.

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